The worst and the best in us

The Associated Press reported March 7 that a Boston woman who gave birth after a failed abortion has filed a lawsuit against two doctors and Planned Parenthood seeking the costs of raising her child.

According to the report, the woman, 45-year-old Jennifer Raper, discovered she was pregnant in March 2004 and decided to abort the child “for financial reasons.” However, five months later she realized that her Planned Parenthood doctor must have performed the procedure incorrectly because she discovered that she was still pregnant. Her daughter was born on Dec. 7, 2004 and the now two-year-old is apparently healthy (the suit makes no mention of medical problems).

In her “wrongful birth” lawsuit, Raper is seeking financial damages and compensation for the cost of rearing her child.

We could offer comment stressing the way the “culture of death” has flipped the core human values of love and compassion for the innocent on their head.

Instead, however, we offer you this second report, which speaks for itself.

Last month, the Web portal Lifesite.net carried the story of Jennifer Ann Carlisle, a Tennessee woman who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005. Two months into her fourth pregnancy, she was told that she would have to abort her child to undergo aggressive treatment of her tumor.

“Even though the doctors did say it would extend her life to have the abortion, she and her husband made the decision to let God choose,” Carol Day, Carlisle’s mother said.

Gabriel Carlisle was born in January 2006. Carlisle underwent chemotherapy but after a brief summer remission, her condition worsened. A member of Christ Community Church in Franklin Tennessee, she attended church services Feb. 11 and died surrounded by her husband and family the following week at the age of 31.